The eastbound I-84 rest area near Exit 28 in Southington is dedicated to Connecticut Auxiliary Trooper Edward W. Truelove, He was was killed on Nov. 13, 1992 while helping a disabled motorist on I-84.

The eastbound I-84 rest area near Exit 28 in Southington is dedicated to Connecticut Auxiliary Trooper Edward W. Truelove, He was was killed on Nov. 13, 1992 while helping a disabled motorist on I-84.

Photo: Connecticut State Police

Trooper killed 25 years ago on I-84 remembered

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State Police paused to remember Auxiliary Trooper Edward W. Truelove, who was killed 25 years ago Monday while helping a disabled motorist on I-84.

The accident happened on I-84 in Cheshire, shortly after Truelove made sure the driver and passenger were out of harm’s way on the far side of the guardrail.

Truelove’s cruiser was struck by a tractor-trailer driven by Pennsylvania trucker Donald Crone Jr., who told state police he was likely daydreaming when he rounded a curve on I-84.

Truelove, 72, was trapped inside the cruiser when it burst into flames. A Waterbury resident, he served 23 years as an auxiliary trooper.

“On Nov. 13, 1992, Auxiliary Trooper Edward W. Truelove stopped for a disabled motorist in the truck-climbing lane of Interstate 84 in Cheshire,” State police posted on their Facebook page.

“After directing the driver and passenger to safety on the far side of the guardrail, Auxiliary Truelove radioed for a tow truck and attempted to safeguard the scene with his strobe lights.

“Several minutes later, an interstate truck driver drove into the rear of the police cruiser and Auxiliary Truelove was killed in the crash. If not for his concern about the occupants of the broken down car and his orders to move off the roadway, they too might have died.”

The rest area on I-84 east, just past Exit 28 in Southington, was dedicated to Truelove in September 2013.

According to the Hartford Courant, the truck driver pleaded no contest to a charge of negligent homicide. When Crone was sentenced in April 1994, he was given conditional discharge for 18 months and a suspended sentence. The maximum sentence was six months in prison.